Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-06-18
SUMMER BREAKFASTS.
How the Housewife Can Give q Good BE
ginning to the Day.
BY JENNY JUNE.


copyrighted. 1871
often pity men because they are so de-
pendent on the women of their household
or clearinghouse for their food, for their
comforts, for the realization of the idea which
every one must form of what he would w."
to eat, the way he would like it to bes we'd
the aid to his health and development wn...4
he would receive from proper provision for
his body and tired nervous forces.
Perhaps if he got it at all just right he
would fail to appreciate it, and would still
find something to grumble Notwithstanding
to sigh for-but in the general way he does
not find much attention paid to the helpful
influences of daily life, and instead of the
growl for which he receives the credit, the
general tendency of the male animal is to
accept the inevitable and let it work out
his daily fare as best it can. Lifeis too short
busy life-and cares too many and Cypress
i've for men to trouble themselves with the
details which belong to women, and in the
meantime their previous experience may
have been such as to prevent them from
knowing what they miss.
The short-comings, it must be promised, do
not always arise from want of will much
more frequently they are the result of want
ofhabit and early training. The conscientious
housekeeper usually expends herself upon
quantity or number of edibles without dis
elimination, contrast or variety. The articles
composing the bill of fare are almost the same
the whole year round. Particularly is this
the case with the breakfast, the most beauti-
full meal of the day-that which opens it with
blessing and benediction, which prepares
each member of the family for the duties and
pleasures to be performed and enjoyed, if it
fulills its function, but which, alas often
send them out unrefreshed, unsatisfed wish
ing there was some place in this world where
good air, healthful food and bright, cheer
full spirit of cleanliness and contentment
could be found. Breakfast, more than any
other meal, needs the pervading intelligence
of the mistress of the house. As warm
weather approaches appetites naturally flag
certain lassitude and inertia prevails,
which is usually quickened into disgust and
exhaustion by the lack of attention to house
hold refnements and the simplest
dictates of sanitary law. The table
;lOth, under the direction of the servant, is
not too clean, the eggs are hard, or cold, or
fried in grease; the bread is uninviting, the
coffee bad, but strong to bitterness; the meat
tough and the fried potatoes, which are
always there, look even more wretched and
dyspeptic than usual. Somebody throws the
window wide open on the stuffy, close room
as the family sit down to breakfast, so that
noise and dust or glare flow in, and each one
rings special and individualized subject of
complaint, and all, after talking and try
Zig every separate article upon the table,
leave them in mass upon their plates in
company with quantity of uneaten butter.
The food is wasted-it is not eaten-yet all
go away nsatisfied-unfit for hard work
and more ready to do unwise things than if
good air, good food and cheerful companion
ship had braced them up and furnished the
necessary powers of resistance
The mistress of the house, on the other
hand-left at home-sees the unused food
swept away to the kitchen to be transferred
to the slop- pail, and complains bitterly of the
wastefulness and want of appreciation of
what she provides in reality She does
nothing toward its supply, and uses neither
brain nor energy in its proper preparation
or distribution. If a special article is re-
auired it is special grievance and special
virtue in her to supply it. This absence of
WbhHbhCoo, OitCn LuOIc III SecI1lnS imam
intention or reality, this faculty for making
instead of taking trouble effectually pre-
vents individual expression of opinion or
preference; indeed, any such would be con-
sidered a reflection upon her methods and
an atfront not to be forgiven. In this way
asmall tyranny grows out of incompetency,
which perpetuates it and the evils for which
it is responsible.
1t is not any wonder that men sometimes
quote my mother" Each one of us has
known some household, generally in the past,
rather than the present tense, which realized
In true sense the conditions of home to
the inmates 1t may have been in the city,
1t may have been in the country, but wher-
ever it was, it had an industrious, painstak-
ing intelligent woman at the head of it, and
one of her specialties was early rising and
the supervision of pleasant and appetizing
breakfast table. l am sure of this because it
would be the instinct of really good house
keeper, and also because no fragrant impress
sion of her good deeds would remain if they
had not carried with them the freshness of
the early morning.
1t is very frequently the case b city
housekeepers nowadays that they ~ them
selves out" to use their own exHN N, on
dinners. They have no appetite r. break
fast themselves, and therefore fec 40 in
terest in it, and as the gentlemen an not at
home, anything will do for lunch le dry
bread left from breakfast, some dry,f cake,
scraps OF cold meat, and cup of tea, are of
what it usually consists 1t is upon this kind
Of food that the body has to do its work. and
it is into this exhausted body that the only
haortu hoavu Of Aha 10 ;. NJ n
time when it should se preparing for re-
freshing sleep.
Summer breakfas' are not wanting in ma
terial. The difficulty is that it is not of the
right kind, and e,en when it is, is not Sc
iected or prepared with sufficient care, nor
served under conditions most favorable to its
assimilation and enjoyment. The windows